TikTok is tracking you now. Here’s how to protect yourself
TikTok’s U.S. operations are now managed by a new American joint venture, ending a long-standing debate over whether the app would be permanently banned in the United States. The good news for TikTok users is that this deal guarantees that the app will continue to operate within America’s borders.
But there’s some bad news, too.
Successive U.S. administrations—both Biden’s and Trump’s—argued that TikTok posed a national security threat to America and its citizens, partly because of the data the app collected about them. While all social media apps collect data about their users, officials argued that TikTok’s data collection was a danger (while, say, Facebook’s was not) because the world’s most popular short-form video app was owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company.
The ironic thing is that TikTok will actually collect more data about them now than it did under ByteDance ownership. The company’s new mostly American owners—Larry Ellison’s Oracle, private equity company Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment company MGX—made this clear in a recent update to TikTok’s privacy policy and its terms of service.
If this new data collection unnerves you, there are some things you can do to mitigate it.
How to stop TikTok’s new U.S. owners from getting your precise location
When TikTok’s U.S. operations were still owned by ByteDance, the app did not collect the GPS phone location data of users in the United States. TikTok’s new U.S. owners have now changed that policy, stating, “if you choose to enable location services for the TikTok app within your device settings, we collect approximate or precise location information from your device.”
While allowing TikTok—or any social media app—to access your location can mean you see more relevant content from events or creators in your area, there’s no reason that app should need to know your precise GPS location, which reveals where in the world you are down to a few feet.
Thankfully, you can block TikTok’s access to your GPS location data by using the settings on your phone.
On iPhone:
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Apps.
- Tap TikTok.
- Tap Location.
- Set location access to Never.
On Android:
- Find the TikTok app on your home screen and tap and hold on its icon.
- Tap the App information menu item from the pop-up.
- Tap Permissions.
- Tap Location.
- Tap “Don’t Allow.”
How to limit new targeted advertising
When TikTok’s U.S. operations were owned by ByteDance, the company’s terms of service informed users that it analyzed their content to provide “tailored advertising” to them. This was not surprising. TikTok’s main way of generating revenue is via showing ads in the app.
But in the updated terms of service posted by TikTok’s U.S. owners, it now appears that TikTok will use the data it collects about you, as well as the data its third-party partners have on you, to target you with relevant ads both on and off the platform. As the new terms of service states, “You agree that we can customize ads and other sponsored content from creators, advertisers, and partners, that you see on and off the Platform based on, among other points, information we receive from third parties.”
Unfortunately, as of this writing, TikTok’s new U.S. owners don’t seem to offer a way for U.S. users to disable personalized ads (users in some regions may see the option under Settings and privacy > Ads in the TikTok app).
Still, if you have an iPhone, you can at least stop TikTok from tracking your activity across apps and websites using iOS’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which allows users to quickly block an app from tracking what they do on their iPhone outside of the app.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap Privacy and Security.
- Tap Tracking.
- In the list of apps that appears, make sure the toggle next to TikTok is set to off (white).
Currently, Android does not offer a feature like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency.
TikTok’s U.S. owners track your AI interactions
Like most social media apps, TikTok has been slowly adding more AI features. (One, called AI Self, lets users upload a picture of themselves and have TikTok turn it into an AI avatar).
As Wired previously noted, TikTok’s new U.S. owners have now inserted a new section in the privacy policy informing users that it may collect and store any data surrounding your “AI interactions, including prompts, questions, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the responses they generate.”
That means anything you upload to use in TikTok’s AI features—or prompts you write—could be retained by the company. Unfortunately, there’s no internal TikTok app setting, or any iPhone and Android app setting that lets you get around this TikTok AI data collection.
That means TikTok’s U.S. users only have one choice if they don’t want the app’s new U.S. owners to collect AI data about them: Don’t use TikTok’s AI features.